The installation piece below was submitted and published in the Lyceum (The University of Michigan-Dearborn's Literary Fine Arts Journal) as a collection of documentation and observations.
Column-homage to Donald Judd
To see the placard: http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~idtran/Column_IanTran.pdf
A fond memory from my freshman year of college at University of Michigan-Dearborn, this piece was as much a prank as it was a tongue-in-cheek nod to contemporary arts, minimalism, and call to action spurred by the lack of fine arts activity on the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus. It was up for approximately six hours and viewers/other artists (unknown) had rearranged the tables in interesting ways as the day progressed.
Inspired by very minimalistic (and almost non-functional) and unusually hip tables that populated student study spaces on the third and fourth floors of the UM-Dearborn College of Arts, Sciences and Letters building, and a bit of frustration that the Dearborn campus community was fairly deficient in the arts (no performing or applied arts majors offered, and almost no fine arts initiatives from the student body). There's a fantastic story that goes along with the construction and conception of the piece, but you'll have to hear it live sometime as I won't fit all of its details here. On December 6th, 2006 I improvised a descriptive art placard and affixed it to the side of the column minutes before an accomplice (Sean Clyne, a Count Ant) and I started gathering the tables from student study areas on the 3rd and 4th floor of the building. It read:
For those curious about Donald Judd and why I made this an homage: Donald Judd is a famous minimalist artist who has one of his installation pieces (a stack of blocks adhered to the wall) on display at the Detroit Institute of the Arts.
What's minimalism to me? Here's my take--be concise, communicate an idea with simplicity. You'll hear the maxim of simplicity in minimalist music as well, though repetition may be more prevalent over conciseness . I think the "stack" sculpture of his on the wall of the Detroit Institute of the Arts is a pretty good example of that.
Column-homage to Donald Judd
To see the placard: http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~idtran/Column_IanTran.pdf
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| Column "re-constructed"at approximately 18:30 after an eventful day. Photographed by Ian Tran |
A fond memory from my freshman year of college at University of Michigan-Dearborn, this piece was as much a prank as it was a tongue-in-cheek nod to contemporary arts, minimalism, and call to action spurred by the lack of fine arts activity on the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus. It was up for approximately six hours and viewers/other artists (unknown) had rearranged the tables in interesting ways as the day progressed.
Inspired by very minimalistic (and almost non-functional) and unusually hip tables that populated student study spaces on the third and fourth floors of the UM-Dearborn College of Arts, Sciences and Letters building, and a bit of frustration that the Dearborn campus community was fairly deficient in the arts (no performing or applied arts majors offered, and almost no fine arts initiatives from the student body). There's a fantastic story that goes along with the construction and conception of the piece, but you'll have to hear it live sometime as I won't fit all of its details here. On December 6th, 2006 I improvised a descriptive art placard and affixed it to the side of the column minutes before an accomplice (Sean Clyne, a Count Ant) and I started gathering the tables from student study areas on the 3rd and 4th floor of the building. It read:
Exhibit #1 of the Constructive Energy expositionColumn-homage to Donald Judd, 2006This interference of the vertical space is a paradox between the literal and scientific. The medium (readymade tables ¾ utilized without the consent of the University of Michigan Dearborn department of Humanities and ¼ utilized without the consent of the University of Michigan Dearborn department of the Behavioral Sciences) in its original state has a high potential to further or enhance the learning experience of the student. At the same time, the tables (in their default dispersal) are a demonstration of high entropy. This stacked arrangement reduces the entropy, thereby raising its potential energy. Though it reduces the potential for conventional student learning, it is the artist’s hope that it will bring fine and performing arts to the attention of the public (especially the student body). To those impassive of the piece, it is merely a troublesome object imbued with capricious and mildly plausible meaning by a troublesome set of students.
For those curious about Donald Judd and why I made this an homage: Donald Judd is a famous minimalist artist who has one of his installation pieces (a stack of blocks adhered to the wall) on display at the Detroit Institute of the Arts.
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| Column mid-day; also pictured: Professor Lee Brooks of English Composition Photo credit to Brandon Segrest |
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| Column circa 16:26 Photographed by Ian Tran |
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